{Book Review} The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Nina Kane should be worrying about her immortal soul, but she's too busy trying to actually survive. Her town's population has been decimated by soul-consuming demons, and souls are in short supply. Watching over her younger sister, Mellie, and scraping together food and money are all that matters. The two of them are a family. They gave up on their deadbeat mom a long time ago.

When Nina discovers that Mellie is keeping a secret that threatens their very existence, she'll do anything to protect her. Because in New Temperance, sins are prosecuted as crimes by the brutal Church and its army of black-robed exorcists. And Mellie's sin has put her in serious trouble.

To keep them both alive, Nina will need to trust Finn, a fugitive with deep green eyes who has already saved her life once and who might just be an exorcist. But what kind of exorcist wears a hoodie?

Wanted by the Church and hunted by dark forces, Nina knows she can't survive on her own. She needs Finn and his group of rogue friends just as much as they need her.

This was one of those books that I picked up without even reading the synopsis. Because the cover was pretty.

There are a lot of fascinating things about this book. First of all, it’s one of the better dystopias I’ve read recently. I found the setting to be creepy and terrifying, as with most dystopias. A fanatic church has become the entire government, claiming they are the only ones keeping what’s left of humanity safe from the demons waiting to possess and eat their souls. They have all sorts of insane laws and punishments, and only when Nina and her sister Melanie get into serious trouble does this become a real problem. And when Nina discovers she’s a real exorcist, not like the ones consecrated in the church that chant Latin and throw holy water at demon possessed, but a real exorcist with special powers, she becomes an even bigger threat that the church immediately wants to put down.

There were so many interesting twists in this book. That’s the real strength of The Stars Never Lie; Rachel Vincent has a lot of creativity. It’s not often that I stop in a book, laugh at how crazy something is, then stare at the page and try to make sense of it. But that happened more than once here.

Finn is an awesome concept and character, and I can’t wait to see what Vincent does with him next. He comes to get Nina to join him and his ragtag band of true exorcists, and there are just so many super cool possibilities for his character, that I literally cannot wait to see what happens. Nina was a fine main character, willing to sacrifice for her sister, even keep her head down at the beginning and do what was necessary to keep them both safe. I really liked her relationship with Finn. It wasn’t super dramatic. In fact, it was so cute that everyone was like, Finn just really likes you Nina. AWWWWWW. So non-dramatic. Well, until you know the whole story, which I’m definitely not going to spoil for you.

There’s lots of paranormal action, with the exorcists vs. demons. Nina has to learn quickly and almost doesn’t make it a couple of times. I’m truly interested to see where everything heads in the next book after the revelation at the end of The Stars Never Rise. If you’re looking for an action packed, romantic, and thoroughly clever YA dystopia, filled with demons and fascinating theories on souls, look no further than The Stars Never Rise.